


North

by Blue_hare



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Afterlife, Dreaming, Gen, Kid Fic, Levi-centric (Shingeki no Kyojin), Reunions, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:01:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27022429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_hare/pseuds/Blue_hare
Summary: "Come find me in the future."Just a paths reunion. Sort of...
Relationships: Levi/Erwin Smith
Comments: 5
Kudos: 42





	North

**Author's Note:**

> And I'm late for Erwin's Birthday but please read anyway.

When Levi was a young and thin child with an empty void for a stomach, he filled his head with the tales his mother told him. He gobbled them up; the color blue of the sky he had never seen, the gold light of the sun he had never felt, the emerald green of the trees he had never touched, the crisp air of the wind he had never smelled.

They relieved the hunger he felt in his round tummy just a little bit.

But he felt starved nonetheless.

He wanted to see, feel, touch and smell everything.

And that hunger was worse than the one in his belly.

Once, after him momma had shown him the gap in the ceiling of the Underground for the very first time, he dreamed that he climbed those tall trees he’d glimpsed for the first time. He climbed higher and higher and even though he had never done it before, he was not afraid of the height. No, Levi wanted to reach as high as he could. He wanted to see the blue sky and the golden Sun and feel the wind. So he climbed until he reached the very top. The sky was so blue, not at all like the dark it had been when his momma showed him the gap. And the Sun, the sun was beautiful and warm and the wind made him feel like he'd grown wings, like the birds that sometimes got stuck down below.

Young Levi was so sure he had seen heaven in his dream and that if he just went up, it would be waiting for him.

His lungs burn with each breath he takes. It feels like he’s breathing in sand and those small grains are getting stuck to his throat and the lining of his lungs. His vision blurs badly. He can't feel much now. Has not been able to since Hange… Since Erwin.

The sky is dark like that first time he glimpsed it.

_What a shame._

He coughs the feeling of sand from his throat and tastes metal.

_Disgusting._

He’s kept his promise but there’s no complete sense of relief. Only regrets.

His eyes burn and he feels hot tears run down the side of his one good eye.

For a brief moment he is terrified of what awaits him because this is it.

He is dying. He can feel it.

He wonders what will become of those brats or the world in general. In the end he was not humanity's strongest. He was no hero. He was merely _human._

The thought comforts him.

Because _they_ were the same.

In his last moments he hears not the sound of explosions but the beating of wings.

He wakes up in a field of green and the smell of wild grass. It’s bright but not everywhere. Like he is laying in the only point of light. There’s a fluttering near his ear and then a slight weight settles on his chest. He looks down and there nestled in the folds of his shirt is a small white bird. It tilts his head, its beady eyes staring at him with a sort of impatient look.

It chirps at him and taps on the button of his shirt twice.

There's a second fluttering above him and he glances up to see a second bird, bigger than the noisy one on his chest. It circles around him and shrieks loudly.

The white bird on his chest taps on his button again and then pulls on his shirt when it doesn't get a reaction from Levi.

“I’m dead… Aren’t I?”

He feels ridiculous asking a bird of all things. But he does get a rather sad chirp back as confirmation before it takes off to follow its companion. They circle and sweep down towards him. And then fly off beyond the light and towards the shadows. They shriek and chirp at him when he does not follow. He gets up reluctantly, disgruntled that he has to walk, even though he's just died. Shouldn't he be allowed to rest at last?

“Rest in peace. What a shit joke.”

He follows his odd and annoying guides into the shadows. He does not go far before he is surrounded by complete darkness. He stops to look around him. He can see nothing but pitch black. When he looks behind him, that patch of green he’d woken to is nowhere to be seen. He swallows the strange feeling or eeriness that overcomes him.

There’s two loud screeches behind him. He turns away, now glad to have the pair of birds to guide him through the darkness. They provide the only source of light for him. He picks up the pace hoping to soon reach whatever destination awaits him. Be it heaven or hell.

His feathered companions seem to pick up on his quickening pace so they fly faster.

Levi does not take his eyes off them; watching how they zig and zag, occasionally turning back to make sure he is close behind them. It’s all very _familiar_ the way the pair dip and fly.

He’s not sure for how much time has passed. The cool darkness seems to prolong time and yet he does not tire or loses breath as he now runs at full speed. The further he goes the louder his heart seems to beat, for he had just realized something. Something, that he is much too scared to confirm.

He is not sure what he expected of death but this, this isn’t it. How strange that he has only just had the thought that he _is_ dead. He never thought it would be an endless run through the darkness with only a pair of strange birds for light.

He feels a crushing sort of disappointment. He’d thought he’d be greeted by familiar faces, His Mom, or his Squad or Hange or...

How fitting that even death is a disappointment.

He is so deep in thought that he does not notice that his guides have slowed down. That there is a point of light just ahead.

He comes to a staggering stop, unsure if he wants to go towards it. There is a furious twist of bitterness rising within him. The light has brought nothing but pain to him. He considers turning around and remaining in the dark if only to spite the light. But the choice is not his to make.

Those damn annoying birds swoop at him and screech and chirp and pull on his hair and nip at his fingers with their sharp beaks, urging him to hurry up and continue towards the light.

“Fuck you guys.” He snaps at them, before continuing.

As he nears the light, the darkness dissipates into shadows before easing into bright white light.

He is in a small square room.

There is a crib in the center.

“I don’t understand…?”

He turns around looking towards the pair of birds which have stopped just on the edge of light and darkness. They chirp softly at him nodding their small heads towards the crib.

Levi swallows and takes a single careful step before there is a soft mew and then the wail of a babe just waking up.

He freezes.

The baby cries out once as if testing that it has been heard, and then cries in earnest.

Levi looks around thinking that a mother or a father or a nanny will rush in immediately to calm the child but no one does. Reluctantly he approaches the crib.

The baby is red in the face with its wailing, big fat unhappy tears clumping thick lashes so pale that they are white and its mouth open wide and gummy. Levi can't help but scowl at it.

“Oi, shush! What use is there for you to scream so loud for?”

And of course he is not listened to. The cheek of such a loud squirming human!

“Didn’t you hear me?” He pokes at one of its reddened cheeks. “Shush.”

And the wailing, squirming thing at last quiets and then opens its eyes. Levi feels his breath catch and his heartbeat stop before rapidly accelerating.

“I…” He can’t speak. Can barely breath or make sense of this. Of it.

“Shi-” he stops himself. “Are...are you Erwin?”

And before he mentally kicks and curses himself for asking such a ridiculous question to a human that was probably just popped yesterday, it begins to whimper and cry anew.

“Fu--- I mean shi--- Sshhh.”

He sputters and waves his hands like an idiot at a loss as to what to do.

“Don’t cry. Don't cry. Don’t cry.” he whispers like a mantra and for some reason it seems to work.

Erwin quiets to mere whimpers, blue eyes appearing bluer against his red round face. He looks at Levi, tears and snot messy and smeared all over his face.

They stare at one another and now that he is no longer crying, Levi can truly see that he is indeed Erwin. His head is huge and covered in thinning patches of pale blonde hair, messy due to his cap coming off while he was crying and despite him having no huge bushy brows to speak off yet, his brow bones are quite prominent. It strikes Levi that for all that he teased Erwin that, had he had children they would not be cute, Erwin is. He even has a button nose not the great big thing that he’d come to have as a fully adult man. But Levi does take some satisfied pleasure in knowing that Erwin was a fat, chunky baby.

“Guess you’ve always been a big loud mess.” He declares smiling for the first time as he wipes softly at his face with the cloth nearby. “And I’m always the one cleaning after you, you fool. Like an idiot.”

He whispered this last part. He feels like he's choking now and can't breath properly.

“Erwin. Erwin” he runs his thumb over his clean chubby cheek. “I kept my promise. You were right about everything.”

Erwin looks at him, blue eyes clear and bright and _alive._ He is quick and grabs onto Levi’s finger. Latching on with the surprising strength that all babes seem to hold.

“You’ve caught me.”

_Again._

And that greedy arrogant chunky squirming Erwin coos and ahhs before shoving Levi’s finger in his slimy gummy mouth.

Levi yelps and quickly retrieves his finger, wet and gross with baby drool.

“Disgusting!” he declares looking at Erwin with a deep scowl. Except now Erwin looks like he might start to cry again. He can see the way his mouth trembles and his eyes half close and crease.

“No, no, no, no. Do. Not. Start. Crying.” Levi looks around him. “Shhh. Sssshhh.”

He quickly grabs an odd looking animal with a blanket for a body and wiggles it in front of Erwin.

“Look at the stupid toy.” Erwin seems confused on whether to cry or not. Levi thinks that it's a look similar to when one cant decide to shit or not. “Here, have the stupid toy.”

He’s pleasantly surprised when Erwin reaches his chubby hands and yanks hard.

“Greedy, chubby thing.”

But Erwin seems to care very little for Levi’s declarations and simply waves the cloth around babbling and moving his little legs excitedly.

Levi stares at Erwin all the while a fond sad look in his eyes.

“How would have thought the bastard would have been a cute baby?”

Levi startles at the familiar voice. He looks beside him and Isabel is there grinning at Erwin who seems to be in the midst of shoving his whole hand in his mouth, quite happily at that.

“Hiyah! Baby Bushy Brow.” Erwin offers a gummy smile, waving his drool covered hand back at Isabel. “You don’t seem surprised to see me, Big brother.”

She grins at him mischievously.

“Do you really think me an idiot, idiot?”

They embrace one another. He, squeezing her much too tight but she does not complain.

He feels his eyes burn.

“I’m so sorry I left you behind. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there... That I didn’t make it in time.”

“What are you talking about Levi? In fact you made it much too early if you ask me.”

“Furlan…”

He looks over Isabel’s head, to where Furlan is leaning against the window, where before there had been none.

“You... Levi, I always knew you were the strongest person in the Underground but I think I underestimated you, if I’m to be honest. And him.” he nods to the crib.

“I was wrong to have been so greedy.”

“We both were.”

“If we had succeeded in killing him…”

How bizarre that life. That mission, from long ago seems now.

“His role was important. His and yours.”

Levi cannot say anything. Instead he reaches his hand and brushes it over Erwin’s hair. Smoothing it until it resembles the style he preferred as an adult.

“Why did you bring me here?”

He’s wondered this since he first recognized Erwin.

“Because you wanted to see him and this was the only way to.”

“What do you mean?”

“You and him. The Ackerman bond… It is no longer there.”

Levi looks up at Furlan, eyes narrowed.

“Those were lies.”

“Some but… not all.”

“Big brother, it's not about you being a slave!”

“Then---”

“It’s about equals. Erwin Smith was yours.”

“I don’t understand what that means.”

Furlan raises his eyebrow back at Levi.

“It means many things but I think you know that. Don’t you?”

Isabel giggles.

“It makes so much sense.” she laughs and then cackles. “Remember when I saw you both staring at each, back during our first expedition? It now makes so much sense. Ouch.”

“Shut up.” Levi scowls.

“Guess, what baby? Big brother wuvs you.” Isabel babbles at Erwin who is now blinking blearily back at them. “Guess it's time for a nap.”

“I still don't understand why he… I appeared, here, like this?”

“The world, Paths, as it’s been called, is collapsing. The Titans are no more and the Eldians will soon cease to exist. Everything will be normal. It means things like the Titan powers, the 13 year curse, the strength you, as an Ackerman, possess will disappear. Whatever bound you together will be no more as well.”

“We saw everyone, you know. In Paths. Your Mom and lots of my friends that died in the Underground. Even Sairam and Flagon. Everyone.”

“We didn’t die. Or not really. It was like being stuck in a parallel world but… With Ymir no longer bound, we no longer were as well. Everyone started disappearing. Like a second death. A true Death.”

“Then how am I here and how are you here?”

“Your mom, grandpa and even Kenny.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Paths that link the Ackerman family, is a bit different from the one Ymir and the Eldians were part of.” Furlan looked towards the window, glowing brighter than just a few minutes ago. “That's an Ackerman Path if you will. It’s only just holding but it wont forever. You really wanted to see him but the him of Paradis is no more. He vanished almost as soon as Ymir was freed. Crazy huh? This is him now. But not really. You, from Paradis, still exist and the bond between you is barely there but it was enough to find and lead you to him. Once Paths collapses completely though, you might not see each other again. Ever.”

“Oh.”

“Destiny and fate are strange aren’t they?”

Levi looks at Erwin. He is calm and quiet now. Small hands formed in fists near his cheeks and slow, even breaths raising his chest up and down. He can’t help but run his index finger over his brow and then he rests his hand on Erwin’s chest. Feeling each rise of air. Each breath of life and his beating heart.

“I don’t believe in either of those things.” Levi says looking up at Isabel and Furlan who've resumed their bird forms.

“After all, it was you both who led me to him - this time and that time.” He watches as Isabel’s white birds, puffs and fluffs up, and Furlan’s blue bird twitter back. “I believe in us having a choice.”

Levi leans down stretching his arms to lift Erwin from the crib. He embraces him, cradling his head and breathing in deeply. He can now hear voices drawing near.

“Erwin, come find me in the future.”

When the door opens, a slim young woman wonders in, heading to the crib where she finds her son fast asleep.

“Oh, Darling. Look at him.” She smiles up at her tall husband. “He’s perfect isn’t he?”

Her husband nods watching her run her hands through their son's hair. He hears the sudden and unexpected sound of wings flapping. He turns to the window to find it open. On the sill, a rather small and funny looking bird rests. It seems fixated on the crib before it chirps softly, as if saying goodbye, and flies away, towards the clear blue sky.

_Goodbye Erwin._

_Come find me._

“Ready or not, here I come!”

The boy looks around everywhere and finds one friend after another; hiding behind curtains and under tables and any sort of place a small child might hide. All except one.

“I can’t find him!” he complains, huffing loudly while the others giggle around.

“You go look for him. I’m hungry anyway.” the dark haired boy pouts, sitting down rather aggressively, as he watches his much more patient friend look for the missing hidden person.

It takes exactly 30 seconds.

“Levi, I found you.”

And there, tucked behind the mauve scarf that his mom enjoyed wearing during the winter time, was a small boy crouched down and hiding.

“You found me, Erwin.”

“Of course.” Erwin says holding out a hand to help Levi up.”

“I knew you would.” Levi declares triumphantly.

They head back hand in hand to the others.

“Let’s go have some cake, Levi.”

“Okay.”

Today is a special day.

“Erwin.”

“Yes.”

“Happy Birthday.”

**Author's Note:**

> Probably many errors since I didn't do proper edit and/or looking after. Hopefully wont make you cry like the other one did. Also that it makes sense.
> 
> Happy belated Birthday Dear Erwin.


End file.
